Elleey c



(N0 Model.)

- E. O. WRIGHT. LAST.

No. 605,768. Patented June 14,1898.

' I an UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE,

ELLERY C. lVRIGI-IT, OF BROCKTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

LAST.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 605,768, dated June 14, 1898.

Application filed May 22, 1897. Serial No. 637,657. (No model.)

To ail whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ELLERY O. WRIGHT, of Brockton,in the county of Plymouth and State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Lasts, of which the following descrip tion, in connection with the accompanying drawings, isa specification, like letters on the drawings representing like parts.

In the use of wooden lasts in the manufac ture of boots and shoes the lasts are in the various processes through which they pass subjected to great pressure and strain, and to prevent the last from splitting and wearing out too rapidly the hole in the cone of the last, which is entered by a usual last-pin, has

been provided with a metallic socket; but this metallic socket in use is frequently forced farther into the last and the strains exerted on the last through the pin and socket frequently split the same, and it is to obviate this liability of splitting the last and of forcing the socket-piece into the body of the last that I have devised the invention herein to be described. I

My present invention is an improvement on the invention shown in United States Pate ent No. 398,923, in which a short block is em bedded in the last beneath the socket to constitute a laterally-extended bearing therefor.

In said patented device, however, the construction is such that the tendency is to bend the block, bringing the pressure solely on that part of the last below the said block and socket, this arrangement in practice often proving insufficient to prevent the settling of the metallic socket, so that the cone of the last or wood portion thereof is unsupported and at once crushes down. Accordingly I have placed a stay beneath the socket, so constructed and arranged that the pressure transmitted thereto by the socket is not taken solely by that part of the last below it, as in said patented device, but is taken by the whole heel part of the last, and to this end I have secured the ends of the stay in the respective sides of the last, so that when the pressure is brought on its intermediate portion by the pressure of the socket, its ends being firmly secured, the stay is put under tensile strain, tending to pull in'the sides toward each other, and thereby offering their resistance, in addition to the resistance of the extended lateral bearing, and enabling the socket much more effectually tomaintain its support to the cone of the last.

V Figure 1, in side elevation, represents a last embodying this invention; and Fig. 2 is a section in the line 00.

The wooden lastA, of any usual shape, is bored at its cone a to receive a metallic pinsocket b, which is driven into the said bored hole, leaving the open end of the socket substantially flush with the top of said cone. Preferably before inserting the said socket into the said bore I bore a transverse hole through the last from one to its opposite side beneath the bottom of the bore made for the reception of the said socket, and in this bore I place a stay, which may be made as a bolt 0, having at one end a head 0, said bolt when in place receiving upon its opposite end a clamping-nut 0 or the ends of the said bolt may be upset and headed, preferably over washers. The application of this stay to the last before forcing the socket into the bore made for it obviates splitting the last.

.The main object of my invention is to increase the pressure resistance of the last, and to that end I make provision, so that not only will that portion of the last below the stay serve to support the latter, and thereby support the socket or other equivalent pressurereceiving member when the latter rests'on the stay or binder or is pressed down onto it, but also the opposite sides of the last will also support the stay, the latter acting as a chord to compress the sides toward each other, being placed under tensile strain by downward pressure at its middle to pull'the sides together, thereby adding their resistance to that of the last material below the stay. To further increase the binder or truss effect of my stay or pressure-resistance member c, I prefer to provide it With enlarged ends or abutments, as shown, either separate or integral with the bolt 0, these abutments being shown at c c countersunk in the last. The bolt or stay cis placed beneath the socket bin the direct descending path of the socket and preferably immediately against the inner end thereof and acts as a combined rest or bottom :for the socket and stay or truss for the sides.

Having fully described my invention, what and from side to side of the last to constitute a combined support for the bottom of the socket and stay or binder for the sides, each end thereof having a laterally-extended abutment countersunk in the side of the last, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

ELLERY C. \VRIGIIT.

\Vitnesses:

JOHN C. Enwiinns, Guo. II. MAXWELL. 

